


i have been waiting all my life

by Faeelyn



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), I’ll add tags as I go, M/M, Misunderstandings, no beta we die like men, this might take a while
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:34:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25440988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faeelyn/pseuds/Faeelyn
Summary: in which lance thinks keith is dating shiro. misunderstandings and pining ensues.aka, the soulmate!au you definitely did not ask for.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 47





	1. a smudge starts it all.

Lance didn’t know any better than to assume the worst. Of course he didn’t, because he had never been in an actual, real life committed relationship before. Sure, there were the harmless flings and one night stands that usually originated from one of the frat parties their university was known for. But none of those required leaps of faith such as these. Nothing like discovering your soulmate was not entirely yours. Maybe not even yours at all.  


Perhaps he was being unrealistic—they were told from the moment they could understand such things that your soulmate was made for you, no one else, and that you could only have one. But that didn’t mean that those who were lucky enough to find their soulmates would want to pursue a romantic relationship—some stayed platonic, and others ignored the bond entirely. It wasn’t a necessity to be with them, after all. They were a compliment to your soul, not a piece of it.  


The dilemma began earlier that day, when Lance had been doodling on the corner of his paper in pen. What was he supposed to do, take notes? They were watching a movie adaption of a book they had read the previous week, and he believed he had enough notes on the book to last a lifetime. Especially since he had tried on that module. Or, he believed so, until their professor, who insisted they call him Coran rather than Professor Wimbleton-Smythe (that had been his grandfather), began to ramble on the importance of the changes the film adaptation made to important plot points. When he slid his hand across his paper, in a hurry to jot the information down, he smeared the ink of his paper on the outside of his hand.  


No big deal.  


Really, nothing important. It happened in almost every lecture.  


Until Lance happened to glance over at Keith’s paper to see what he had written on a particular point, only to see ink smudged on the side of his hand.  


Keith had been writing in mechanical pencil.  


Really, he questioned the choice almost every time he noticed, because what were they? Middle schoolers? That, however, was not the important thing at the moment. A feeling of urgency crawled beneath his skin, and with a moment’s thought, he grabbed the sharpie and marked himself again, right on the inside of his thumb. Without pause, the same mark appeared on Keith’s corresponding digit.  


Lance let out a small huff of disbelief, a small grin forming on his features. Keith was his soulmate. Despite the mullet, he was a very, very attractive man, and Lance couldn’t lie—he was a man himself, and attractiveness was an added plus as far as these things went. And Keith was smart—he made frequent additions to class discussions, and always received high marks on tests. That, however, was as much as Lance knew about him. He hadn’t talked with him that often, after all.  


That gave Lance pause. Perhaps he should wait until after class to spring the topic up. He hadn’t done this before, obviously, and it wasn’t like there was an established way to greet your soulmate upon discovering them. He was fairly sure blurting it out in the middle of Modern Lit was not one of the recommended paths. And who said Keith would even believe him? Of course he could prove it with the sharpie, but even then he could decide that he simply did not want to pursue a relationship, platonic or romantic, with Lance. And then…  


Well, he would be very much in an embarrassing position.  


And so he waited until after class. They only had half an hour left anyways, and Coran let them out a couple of minutes early simply because he wanted a cup of tea before he had to prepare for his next lecture. Keith often stayed a few minutes extra, just to finish up his notes and pack his well organized bag, so Lance simply stayed sitting down, turning slightly to face the dark haired boy beside him.  


“Hey, Keith?” Lance began, anxiously bouncing his leg.  


“Hm?” The other man responded after a moment’s pause, removing a wireless earbud from his ear. Lance could hear music faintly from where Keith held it between his fingers—something with a nice beat. AJR, perhaps? At least he had good taste in music.  


“I—“  


A set of vibrations went off on Keith’s phone, causing said boy to raise his eyebrows before he nodded apologetically. “Sorry, gotta answer. I’ll make it quick if you wanna wait.”  
Lance hummed in response, and lifted his own phone to scroll through his instagram feed. His brother posted a picture of his wife and children, making him smile as he liked and left a quick comment on how he missed them. They may not be in Cuba anymore, but they still were a few hours away and he didn’t get to see them everyday. Keith began a conversation over the phone with whoever had called.  


“Yeah, I just got out of class… You used all the milk? Asshole… Yeah, I’ll pick some up on my way home.”  


Lance hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. His Mama had raised him better… she was probably itching to beat him with a sandal about now—but the idea that Keith lived with someone else made a pit settle where his stomach had been.  


“Whatever, love you too. I expect payment when I get back.”  


Not only did he live with someone, but he… Was dating them too.  


He should have known better than to assume Keith was out of a relationship. He had many alluring qualities… Possibly more than he knew of. Some that his significant other more than likely knew. His smile faded.  


Within a few moments, Keith was sliding his phone into his pocket and raising a solitary brow at Lance. “So, did you need something?” The pit in his chest was starting to feel like it was filling with rocks. There was no way Lance could just tell him now. Keith would probably think he was stupid, like plenty of his classmates already did. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t finish his exams as fast as they did! English was his second language, and some of the fancy ass words the authors included in the course used took him a moment to process.  


“Just wanted to know if I could borrow your notes from last week's segment. Didn’t understand some of it, and I was hoping you might have caught on to some things that I hadn’t.” He added a laugh to the end, because laughing at his own expense was something others expected of him. He was always making jokes, anyways.  


“Uh, sure. Are pictures okay? I need them for my homework tonight.”  


Lance nodded, giving a thankful grin, and snapped a few shots of the papers Keith laid before him. Then Keith was gone, and Lance was left to stare at the wall for a few moments. Or perhaps minutes, considering he didn’t leave until Coran returned with a cup of tea, and knocked on his podium’s surface to gain his attention. “Class ended twelve minutes ago, in case you hadn’t noticed.” The orange haired man jokes, before returning to work on his lesson plan. Lance waved before he left.  


Keith was in a relationship.  


Keith was his soulmate.  


His soulmate was in a relationship.  


Oh.  


Lance shook his head as he walked across the campus to his job at the campus coffee shop, where he cleared tables and washed mugs and occasionally got his shot at making a few cups of coffee with foam art. Wasn’t the best job, but it supported his diet of microwavable noodles and whatever food he could leach his best friend into cooking for him. But was it really leaching when he helped with the groceries and Hunk enjoyed making it? The bad thing about the job…  
Well, it didn’t require much thinking, and the fact that he was still very much in shock at his most recent discovery? Well, that would occupy his thoughts for the entire shift.  


Who in this universe did Lance piss off so much for them to give him this shitty hand?  


Because fuck them.  


Just kidding, he’s sorry, he doesn’t need more bad shit heading his way.  


But seriously. Fuck them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ha, this is a short chapter, because this was pretty much just the beginning to the entire mess that will be this work. this is my first fic—be gentle, baby’s soft.


	2. a party invitation from hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which lance is invited to a gremlin's birthday party... and lance begins to regret many of his life choices.

So, maybe Lance skipped a few classes after that.  


Maybe even more than a few.  


Okay, maybe it was a week and a half of not going to his Lit class, and having Hunk take lecture notes for him because the guy was a genius and a saint.  


But Lance, because God knows that he cannot do school work without a set routine, has been slacking off his homework as well, and there's only so much you can do on homework anyways when you haven't exactly been there, is now doing very, very poorly in the class, and unless he wants to have to tell his Mama that he is failing, he really needs to start attending the lectures once more. Even if it means he has to see his soulmate happy, without him.  


And that's how Lance ended up here, laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, while his alarm went off for the third time. He had time to make it to his class, of course, but it wasn't like he was going to get up early and await the moment he had to leave. He wasn't Pidge. The little internal jab make him snort softly, and he sat up after fifteen minutes of listening to his alarm blare in his ear. He reached beside him to grab the device making the incriminating sound, squinting at the brightness as he tried to focus on how it wanted to be turned off this morning. Button, slide, puzzle? Luckily it wasn't the puzzle, because those were suck-y, and he'd rather break his phone with the mood he was in than struggle to solve it while his eyes strained at the awful blue light.  


Lance closed his eyes for a moment more, simply sitting up and enjoying the silence of his room, before he searched his nightstand for the lamp he left there, flipping the switch into the on position and standing up to stretch. All long limbs and smooth skin (he may be male, but that doesn't mean he can't shave or wax to enjoy the comfort of hairlessness) and... a note to self about 8:00 PM and a party. Hm. Didn't remember that being there.  


He shrugged it off, before grabbing his little plastic travel bag of toiletries and crossing his shared dorm room with Hunk (who left hours before for an early shift at the campus cafe, and was probably already on his way for class because Hunk was never late) to head to the floor's communal showers. He just wanted to quickly rinse the sleep out of his body and give him a little bit more perkiness to get through the day with. The dorm was co-ed, so it didn't really surprise him when there were multiple stalls in use and a line of at least five people waiting to take shower. As much as he knew that guys could take just as long in the shower as girls could, it was simply a known fact that girls (especially girls with long hair, cough cough Allura and Romelle, who he knew to be sure offenders) tended to enjoy taking their sweet time under warm water. Sorry, sorry, but Lance was cranky from a week of solitude, claiming to have caught a cold, and now was not a time for him to sugar coat anything. Maybe he should skip the shower and get coffee? It sounded like it would definitely take less time, and proved out to be because the stalls had still not become open by the time he finished his five step skin routine. No matter his mood, skin care was sacred.  


Alas, this did not mean Lance was on time. Oh, no, he was still at least five minutes late, and despite the fact that Coran had not started his lecture, the man can still give a mean look of disapproval. After coffee, he was feeling quite a bit better, and in the rush, had forgotten all about his little predicament. So maybe Lance spared his teacher a friendly smile and wink, but at least he was acting normal again! One can only pick and choose. "Welcome back to the world of the living," he heard from the corner, where Pidge quirked a grin, glasses glinting in the light of the morning. "Or maybe not living, considering you still look like death."  


"Take that back!" He gasped, holding a hand to his chest in a show of true dramatics.  


"At least your acting normal," She shrugged, before perking up. "What'd you get me for my birthday?" 

Lance was confused. For a moment or two, anyways. But when it hit him, it hit him hard. It was April 3rd, wasn't it? He grinned, swooping her up into a big hug. "Happy birthday, Pigeon!" He had forgotten. Oh shit. He was in trouble, wasn't he?  


"I'd almost thought you'd forgotten, idiot. Now spill! What'd you get me?" The petite girl slapped him on his shoulder, and he set her back onto the ground, where she plopped into her seat.  


"I'm not telling you. You'll have to wait until later, when I give it to you."  


"Speaking of later..." She seemed to grin even wider. It seemed she really did enjoy her birthday, especially since it meant Hunk cooked for her and everyone got her presents and the spotlight was solely on her. He knew her long enough that he knew it to be true. "Are you coming to my party? Matt's throwing it at his apartment at 8 tonight."  


"Of couse, Pidgey-Widgey. Count me in. Hunk's cooking, not Matt, right?" He knew her brother well enough to know that he couldn't cook for shit, even though he had only met him a few times.  


The girl gave him a deadpan look. "Would I accept anything less?"  


"If everyone would look to the board instead of talking amongst themselves like a bunch of twittering loons, we would be able to start our lesson for today. Talking to you, number 3, number 5."  


Hunk, who was talking to the pretty girl in the back of the class whom he was absolutely in love with but refused to tell her, made a hissing sound through his teeth as he tried not to laugh, walking down the isle to where he usually sat next to Pidge. Lance winked at Coran, for the second time in five minutes, then let Hunk have his seat and moved almost on autopilot past Hunk and down the row behind them, where he sat next to... Keith. He sat next to Keith. Lance blinked a few times at the dark mullet before him, who was absentmindedly spinning a pen between his fingers. Or, was, before he noticed the heavy stare on the top of his head. He turned, raising an eyebrow at the Cuban dumbfounded before him, before rolling his eyes and turning back towards Coran. "Are you going to sit, or just stand there looking stupid?" The quip knocked Lance out of his moment of shock, and he sat heavily, suddenly remembering just why he was in a mad mood that morning. And since had only just told Lance of her party, that meant the writing on his hand was not his and he had forgotten... It meant it was Keith's note to himself, and that meant that Keith was going.  


Could the day get any worse?  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second update! still short, but it's better than nothing, i'm assuming. feel free to leave comments and kudos (if I am so deserving UWU), but just remember that baby is soft. be kind to yourself and others! see you next time, lovelies.


End file.
